2014 News Releases

AG Schmidt supports challenge to New York gun ban

TOPEKA – (May 14, 2014) – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt recently joined in support of a court challenge to New York’s ban on semi-automatic firearms.

In a brief filed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 22 states, Schmidt argued that New York’s broad gun ban infringed on law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“New York’s decision to prevent law-abiding citizens from possessing an entire class of heretofore lawful weapons burdens the Second Amendment rights of those citizens,” the attorneys general wrote in the brief. “But it also fails to achieve its purpose, instead putting New York’s law-abiding citizens at risk by ensuring that only criminals will have access to certain kinds of rifles, shotguns, and handguns.”

The case, Nojay v. Cuomo, is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. A copy of the brief is available at http://1.usa.gov/1iLISUL.